Man who shot at police, sister during standoff was trying to commit suicide: defence

A Saskatoon Police Service armoured rescue vehicle was shot twice by Kevin John Levandoski during a standoff on Coppermine Crescent on Aug. 22, 2014. Police photos were entered as exhibits at Levandoski's sentencing hearing on Oct. 24, 2016.Saskatoon

Saskatoon police officers showed “remarkable restraint” by not firing at Kevin John Levandoski while he repeatedly shot at police and his sister during a standoff on Coppermine Crescent, the Crown said during Levandoski’s sentencing hearing on Monday.

When he armed himself with a .22-calibre rifle following a drunken argument with his sister and fired nearly 20 shots — both inside and outside the north-end home — court heard Levandoski wasn’t trying to kill anyone but himself.

“You have a sick man who was wanting to die, and he chose an awful route,” defence lawyer Michael Nolin told Justice Gary Meschishnick.

Levandoski is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty to 10 charges, most of them gun-related, in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench. Instead of pleading guilty to the most serious charges — attempted murder — he pleaded guilty to the lesser included offences of discharging a firearm with intent to endanger his sister Kim’s life, and to avoid being arrested by two officers.

He also pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon. Before the shooting began, Levandoski, who had been drinking, choked his sister and smashed a beer bottle over her head during an argument that started over a computer on the night of Aug. 22, 2014, court heard.

In response to Kim’s threats to call police, he grabbed his gun and fired shots inside the home. Kim and her two children got outside and hid behind a parked truck in front of the house until police arrived in an armoured rescue vehicle, prosecutor Gary Parker said.

For about an hour, Levandoski went from room to room, shooting through various windows. Parker said he fired four shots at the truck, two shots at the armoured vehicle and another shot that went “whizzing by within a couple of feet” of a police officer.

A Saskatoon Police Service armoured rescue vehicle was shot twice by Kevin John Levandoski during a standoff on Coppermine Crescent on Aug. 22, 2014. Police photos were entered as exhibits at Levandoski’s sentencing hearing on Oct. 24, 2016.Saskatoon

Levandoski said he remembers shooting at the ground and then at the armoured vehicle, hoping police would shoot back at him.

“We could not determine where the accused was in the residence. If we don’t have a clear target, we cannot simply fire into a residence,” testified Sgt. Ken Kane, a member of the city police tactical support unit.

Police also wanted to exhaust all other available tactics in order to avoid using that kind of force, Kane said.

The Crown argued for an 11-year prison sentence, minus a three-year credit for time spent on remand, to account for the totality of the dangerous offences that, by targeting specific people, also resulted in Levandoski “holding his neighbourhood hostage.”

Nine years would be a more appropriate sentence to address Levandoski’s significant mental health issues and Gladue factors, Nolin argued. Gladue factors are aspects of an aboriginal person’s background that must be taken into account during sentencing in criminal cases.

Levandoski told the judge he hadn’t slept more than three hours a night for two months and “snapped” on the day of the shooting. He said he has struggled with anxiety and depression ever since he was violently assaulted by his father and sexually assaulted by someone else.

Although he didn’t want to kill any of the officers involved, Levandoski acknowledged how scary it must have been for them.

“I thank them for not shooting me,” he said through tears. “I don’t know why they didn’t, but I’m thankful.”

His sister Kim, who was in the courtroom, replied that she and her mom begged them not to shoot.

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